RESUMO
Health organizations with teaching and research responsibilities face the need to establish a comprehensive system that addresses the processes and challenges associated with research activities; a system that assists local institutes in becoming research-active by identifying gaps and providing actionable recommendations. The involvement of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and data scientists is paramount in offering technical and scientific support to health researchers. In our organization, research support services, such as technical, statistical, logistical, and scientific assistance, have been provided to researchers for the past 20 years under the name of "Data Clinic Service". This article discusses the establishment of a physical booth called the "Research Concierge Desk" within a medical center to offer on-site, free-of-charge, and direct consultations to researchers, thereby improving accessibility to data clinic services. The underlying concept of the "Research Concierge Desk" is to align the research workflow for busy clinicians, who require vital assistance in the technical aspects of their research. As well, the desk and its digital platform enabled us to assess research process workflow, such as research submission, data clinic requests, research progress tracking, and researcher satisfaction assessment. We present the initiation of the "Research Concierge Desk" as an innovative solution in hospital settings, outline the available resources, benefits, challenges, and propose areas for improvement. The experience gained from implementing the "Research Concierge Desk" model can greatly benefit other health centers in adopting a similar approach to develop enhanced services for clinical researchers.
RESUMO
Background: Trifecta™ is an externally wrapped bovine pericardial aortic valve with a favorable hemodynamic performance and acceptable rate of freedom from structural valve degeneration. However, recent reports of early Trifecta valve failure question its durability. Rheumatic valve disease in young population is predominant, there is no data on the Trifecta performance, durability or safety available worldwide over the middle age population, as well as there are no previous similar reports from Middle East region. We report on mid-term clinical and hemodynamic performance of Trifecta valve in middle age population with small aortic annuls, a single center report. Methods: A retrospective study of all patients who underwent Trifecta™ SAVR between June 2014 and December 2019 at a cardiac center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hemodynamic performance was analyzed by longitudinal Doppler echocardiography. Results: During a 5.5-year period, a total of 24 patients underwent SAVR with Trifecta™ valves at our heart center. Patients had a median age of 47.1 years (IQR = 37) and male:female ratio of 1:1. Patients had a median EuroScoreII of 2 (IQR = 1). The 19 mm valve was the most frequently used (29.2%) followed by the 21 mm and 23 mm (both 25.0%). Concomitant procedure was (54.2%). All patients survived their operations and most (87.0%) had their symptoms relieved. A 30-day mortality rate of 4.2%. Patients were followed up for a median of 58.5 months (IQR = 38), during which 8.3% required re interventions, giving an overall freedom from re-intervention of 91.7%. The re-intervention after valve implantation was recorded in two (8.3%). These re-interventions were performed 3 years post initial surgery and were due to structural valve deterioration (SVD). The mean gradient reduced significantly from 43.6 ± 23.9 mmHg (median = 41, IQR = 21) at baseline to 13.0 ± 7.4 mmHg (median = 11, IQR = 5) one-week post intervention (p < 0.001). The average mean gradients were stable from post-operation to follow-up (13.0 ± 7.4 vs 14.1 ± 6.4 mmHg). Conclusion: Our study confirms excellent mid-term durability, clinical and hemodynamic performance of the Trifecta™ valve in middle age population, despite the fact of non-statically significant trend-up of transvalvular gradient over the follow up period. Further long-term studies with larger sample-size are warranted to confirm these results.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine was the first line of defense during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Saudi Arabia believes it is essential to emphasize telemedicine services to combat the virus as part of its early precautionary actions. OBJECTIVES: To measure the prevalence of telemedicine usage and determine the facilitators and barriers affecting telemedicine usage. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Saudis from October 2020 to April 2021. Participants received an online questionnaire through multiple social media platforms. RESULTS: The prevalence of telemedicine usage was 45.2%. The most significant facilitator that affected the participants' usage was avoiding the infection of COVID-19, at 87.3%. In-person consultation preference was the biggest barrier preventing Saudis from using telemedicine services (62.5%). CONCLUSION: Not enough people are aware of telemedicine services, so it is recommended to multiply advertisements for the services provided to reach many users. To enhance Saudi Arabia's awareness of the risks of COVID-19, further studies are needed to assess telemedicine usage during COVID-19, since the majority of studies were conducted in advance.
